And They Shall Be Called...

We have known our babies first names for several weeks now. We still have not settled on middle names, but we recently shared their first names with a few friends and got anxious to tell you, too. We love their names and have already started to teach Silas to say them.

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Our baby boy and girl will be named Simeon and Lieren.

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I will share more about their names in the days to come, but for now, you might want to know that Simeon's name comes from Luke 2 when Jesus is dedicated in the temple and Lieren's name (pronounced leer-en, just in case you were wondering) is simply a name we love.

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I still have moments when I have trouble wrapping my mind around the thought of two babies at once. It's not overwhelming to think about caring for them (maybe I'm just naive), it's the reality that there are two little ones getting ready to join our family. As many times as I have seen them in ultrasound pictures, I still sometimes think, Are we really having twins?

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And just when I start to wonder how in the world we will have what we need for these two little ones, God goes and does something like He did yesterday...

We were given that entire mountain of baby girl clothes and shoes. I can't get over it. The sizes and seasons are just right for little Lieren. Everything is in perfect condition and some of it is still brand-new with tags. There is also a pink baby bouncy seat that I didn't pull out to get in the picture.

A lady in my Wednesday morning mom's group at church had a friend who was giving away all her baby girl things and decided to send it to our group for people to take what they wanted. Well, all the other ladies said they didn't need it or the sizes were wrong so they lavished it on me! Needless to say, baby Lieren is going to be stylin'! We were given a similar gift from a friend of Wes and Brooke before Silas was born. It was a huge blessing back then and Simeon will get those things passed on to him.

Well, I hear a little man waking in the room down the hall. So I'll head off for now. It is bitterly cold again and snowed a bit last night. We'll stay in the rest of the day and dream of spring, I guess.

Weekend Recap

I slept 11 hours last night. The babies must be going through a growth spurt because I just cannot get enough rest the past two days. Thankfully Silas slept in till 9:30 so I still was able to get up and around before he woke. I love being up before him. It gives me time to gather myself before the day really starts.
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We had a fun weekend with Grandma and Grandpa, who drove down for a quick visit. Silas enjoyed the extra attention and playtime. They had to leave early Sunday morning to avoid more snow headed their way back home. But we had a great time Saturday playing, eating, shopping, and reading books...

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I'm always hoping for a good "family moment" shot, but it rarely works for even just the three of us. In the first picture Silas was ready to eat. He was probably wondering why in the world everyone was waiting around! Then in the second, we had eaten and he was ready to go!

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In other news, Silas has learned to eat with a fork and is loving it. I just decided to try it last Friday after being inspired by my friend Michelle. Now Silas is a pro at it. I told my Mom over the weekend that he had started using utensils on his own, and we both lamented that he was growing up way too fast. It will be good for our hearts to have babies in the house again.

19 Weeks...An Update

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Silas and I got home from a little outing just a bit ago. He is already deep asleep in naptime. I realized that the poor baby had not been out of the house (except for the pizza run a few days ago) in over a week! Between sickness and snow, we've kept him in long enough. He and I really needed to get out today. So we ran to Target, where we browsed all things baby. Then we stopped at McDonalds for lunch. He sat in the booth right beside me and ate his whole kids meal like a big boy. We had such fun. It's days like this that I want to last forever.
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I am 19 weeks this week. So technically, I'm probably a bit over halfway to our due date (praying we get to 37 weeks). I am feeling the babies move more, which has been a lot of fun. I am in kind-of a clothes crisis because none of my pants fit. My old pants are way too small, and my pregnancy pants don't fit in the hips yet and want to fall off. But I'm making it all work. It's the least of my concerns.
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Speaking of clothes, I think there's going to be a little girl who will not be having any kind of clothes crisis at the beginning of her life. I've found some super cute things on the clearance racks lately and have started a tiny collection of pink...
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I decided to update our blog look yesterday. It's funny, I do not look at anyone else's blogs much. I read their posts in my Google Reader and rarely actually visit their sites. I forget that you can make blogs look so cute. So anyway, I found this template that I liked and a few minutes later, it was done.
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I told Shane that I love the new look. It's everything that I want life to be: simple, reflective, quiet. Right now we are in a season where those words describe life around here. It's calm. So I'm soaking it in. I'm taking the minutes I have to think because this season is a gift. And I know it's just a season. The Lord promises the seasons will come and go. In just a few short months, our season will be anything but calm, simple, and quiet. Two babies and a toddler do not add up to lots of minutes for thinking. So I'll reflect while I have the chance. It may be years before a season like this comes again.

Valentines for all the Grands

This is a little Valentine love for Silas' Nana and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, Grandpa Mike, Great Nana and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa Great, and Great Grandpa and Phyllis. We wish we could all be together, but since we can't, I thought you might want to pretend you were here playing and singing with us.

For everyone else, I really don't expect you to watch more than 3 minutes of Silas doing a puzzle and singing the alphabet! It's just a guess, but I think the grands will watch them enough for all of us!

We love you, family!

Please Pray

I mentioned in a couple posts back about our friends who are adopting from Ethiopia. Would you please PRAY for them today? Charis explains the details in her post. We are praying that God would move mountains on their behalf before Monday. Thank you all for praying. It is the least we can do to love and help those on the front lines of caring for orphans.

Snowed In

All our normal Wednesday activities were cancelled today because of snow. So we found all kinds of things to keep us busy inside. We pretty much stayed in our jammies all day. We pulled the wagon all over the living room downstairs, did some laundry, read books, sang the alphabet song at least 20 times and went through letter sounds (Silas kept asking to do this over and over!), colored, and then this afternoon Silas decided to start stacking things on his blocks. We had to keep finding things to stack until the floor looked like this...

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Then he built this very tall tower with just a tiny bit of help from me...

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We finally got out of the house and all went to pick up a pizza for dinner. Silas is feeling much better, thanks for asking.

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I do also have to mention that all the love, comments, texts, notes, and messages about our babies has been overwhelming! One of our prayers has always been that our children will be a blessing to others. Know that right now, you are blessing us. I'll always tell our babies how much they were loved before they were known.

Pink and Blue

What we were told 2 times before was confirmed today...we're having a boy and a girl!

This is a picture of our babies, looking pretty much at the tops of their heads. They have their heads together right now, which I think is so cute. They both showed us how they could drink, wave, and reach for their toes. Every time I see them, the reality sets in more and more. I cannot wait to hold them!

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I had the sweetest ultrasound tech today. She talked me through the entire ultrasound, which took almost an hour! She described each thing she was looking at and told me that every little bit of our babies appeared to be measuring and functioning normally. She had no hesitation when she checked the gender so we'll be having a mix of pink and blue this summer!

Baby A is our girl. We're happy for you to meet her...
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And our boy is Baby B. If you look closely, you can see that he is waving at you. His hand is above his face and you can make out the fingers.

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Our day turned out to not go at all as planned. Shane was supposed to go to morning meetings at church then we were going to head over to a friend's house around noon to drop Silas off before heading together to the doctor's office. But poor baby Silas woke up at 3 in the morning with a stomach virus. I heard him crying so went to his room where I found him with a mess all over his crib and himself. He just kept saying, "wipe!"

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We were up the rest of the night and by early morning knew he wasn't going anywhere today. I talked to the doctor about how to keep him hydrated and by 11 the plan started working. He fell asleep a little before noon as Shane got home to take over.

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We are extremely thankful that Shane got to go with me on our unexpected visit to the doctor because that was when we were first told it was a boy and girl. So we were together for that big moment. We're also thankful that Silas napped today and is now sleeping. He did not have much of an appetite this evening but hopefully his tummy will rest and he will be back to his normal self tomorrow.

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I did think as I was driving to the doctor's office that this was probably only the start of balancing life with three kids!